Plan ahead for Rotary’s “Hungry Games”

The Nevada City Rotary Club is presenting “The Hungry Games,” a major fundraiser dedicated to food, wine and the fine art of gourmet cooking, on Sunday, March 10, from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Miners Foundry.

The highlights will include a “Top Chef” style cooking competition among local chefs, and a “winner-take-all” raffle of $1,200 worth of $100 meals from 12 regional restaurants.

The chefs will be cooking on site and offering free tastings of their food which guests will vote on to determine the “top chef.” Local wineries will also be offering free tastings. There will be a silent auction, and cookbooks and other items will be for sale. Chefs will be discussing their craft and the Seargeant Funky band will provide live music for listening and dancing, all in a fun and exciting setting.

“This will be a major event with something for everyone,” said Rotary president Tom Ryan, “be it sampling food and wine, dancing to the music, watching the chefs do their magic or browsing the booths. It will be a veritable three-ring circus of fun.”

All proceeds from the event will go to help fund the many Nevada City Rotary community service initiatives. The club focuses on local youth programs such as Girls Who Code, an after school program that encourages and trains high school girls for careers in technology, youth leadership camps, academic scholarships, and high school music and speech competitions, along with community service forums presented by community radio station KVMR.

Rotary members also fly down to Mexico’s rural Southern Baja every year to perform health tests on residents, and the club participates in Rotary International clean water projects and polio eradication.

“As a Rotary Club we are part of a non-political international organization that is dedicated to making the world a better place,” said Ryan. “Our primary efforts are expended in our local Nevada City/Grass Valley area, supporting the extraordinary youth who are the future of our community.”

General admission will be $25 in advance, $30 at the door, which includes tastings from the chef competition and local wineries. Tickets can be obtained at Harmony Books, the Bookseller and Inner Sanctum.

Raffle tickets to win $1,200 in restaurant gift certificates will cost $100 and will include a general admission ticket. Raffle tickets will be limited. They can be obtained at Inner Sanctum and from your Rotarian neighbors, and will also be available at the event.

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